A True 19th.c. Quote on the Metrical (double) Metronome Use? Here it is.

Don’t let them bring you to warp speed.

So you have a metronome number. A true 19th century metronome number. Let’s say quarter note = 152. And you feel desperate. Because you want to come close to the composer’s thoughts and hey, if even Lang lang is not making it, why on earth would you. So you give up. The more because some researchers who seems to have high degrees and publications keep telling you you should practice harder. They bombard you with their self certainty that yes, people back then must have been more talented than we are. Way more talented.

And you give up. Try to play as fast as possible. And if you look around, everybody seems to be nodding their heads. Great. Good enough.

Think

Stop. Stop despairing and think twice. It is not that hard to understand. First start by asking all those ‘experts’, mostly conservatory-level trained pianists or harpsichord players, to demonstrate to you what they found so natural. Then, after a long period of silence, turn to the series of interviews I did and will do with Lorenz Gadient, and a world will open for you.

Quarter note = eight note. Yes you read it right

As in this interview you’ll find below this blog text.  There, Lorenz will talk you about Baillot, who published around 1830 a violin school. With Metronome numbers. But in a footnote, he’ll give you -and this is rare since it must have been so commonly and widely understood- how to practice those pieces. And there you have the quarter note = 152. Warp speed, Scotty!! Or not? Not really, since Baillot explains: take every tick 2 (two) sixteen notes. Ah! Double beat after all?

Yes. Definitely.

Time durations of pieces

And then you’ll have time durations that composers sometimes gave. Exact durations. What to do about them? Lorenz Gadient talks about Milchemeyer, who wrote a pianoforte school in 1801.

Why metronome markings matter after all?

Why are metronome numbers so important? Are they not boring and anti-musical?
No! In fact, to me, and I believe also to you, metronome indications, as given by the hundreds of early 19th century musicians as Beethoven, Moscheles, Mendelssohn, Chopin, … should be way on top of any list of important historical facts. How much closer do you want to come to the original idea, the original performance? And good news, there is not a lot of room for interpretation. it is either single or double. Nothing else is possible. We use single beat today, but has that always been the case? Don’t think so.